


January Morning

by curledribbon



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, partially deaf jeremy, things are good for this kid! life is good!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:17:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curledribbon/pseuds/curledribbon
Summary: Jeremy knows it's gonna be a good day.





	January Morning

**Author's Note:**

> un-beta'd! =w= hope you enjoy! i love this AU!!

A gentle hand shakes Jeremy’s shoulder to rouse him out of his slumber. He grumbles, and catches the faintest sound of a hearty chuckle from his left side. Rubbing his eyes then peeking one eye open, Jeremy sees the warm face of his father.

“Good morning, champ!” Mr. Heere signs enthusiastically, handing Jeremy his blue hearing aids right after.

Jeremy signs a greeting before taking the aids and putting them in. Once they sit securely in his ears, he sighs and flops back into bed.

His dad snorts, then says, “C’mon, Jeremy, up and at em.” He squeezes Jeremy’s shoulder, then pokes his sensitive side.

“Dad!” Jeremy yelps. He sits up, and can’t help but join in with his dad’s laughter. 

Jeremy stretches and rubs his face, signing back an affirmative when his dad asks if he wants breakfast. After his dad leaves, Jeremy begins his morning routine, which consists of going to the bathroom, washing his face, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, and packing up his backpack, all while checking his phone. Since he and Michael got together, they’ve engaged in a friendly “who can send the first good morning text” competition, Michael most often victorious. This loss is no sore one for Jeremy, though; knowing that he’s the first thing on Michael’s mind every day makes up for it.

Walking down the stairs with his backpack and phone, Jeremy spots the eggs and toast his dad cooked then sits down across from him. His dad raises his cup of coffee in greeting then sips it. 

“Thanks, dad,” Jeremy says.

They eat in a comfortable silence, Jeremy continuing to pass time on his phone while his dad reads the news. As soon as he gets up to wash his dish, Jeremy sees the familiar P.T. Cruiser pull up in front of his house. Sure enough, his phone vibrates in his pocket with a text from Michael.

7:35 AM  
 **From: Michael Mell**  
beep beep

**To: Michael Mell**  
I see you :) out in a sec

“Michael’s here,” Jeremy says, unable to keep a small smile off his face at the thought of seeing his boyfriend again. “See you at dinner.”

His dad signs, “Hat?” and Jeremy rolls his eyes.

“It’s not even that cold outside,” he signs, hands more quick as he’s eager to leave.

After a simple raised brow from his father, Jeremy huffs out a sigh and tugs on the hat. “Bye, Dad,” he calls, shutting the door and locking it behind him. Pursing his lips, he fondles with his curls to fix how they sit under the lip of the hat, sighing once he gives up. The volume of Michael’s music goes down when Jeremy opens the door.

“Hey, dude!” Michael exclaims, eagerly signing “hello.” Once Jeremy’s seated, he leans over the center console to give Jeremy a kiss. Jeremy’s heart pounds, and he takes hold of Michael’s upper arm while their lips touch. 

It’s been a little over a month since they got together, but there’s been no end to the bursts of butterflies, the warmth in his chest, or the simple happiness Jeremy feels with Michael. After a few agonizing weeks of avoiding the elephant in the room after the play, they had really, truly talked things out; Michael told Jeremy about how it felt when Jeremy was ignoring him, and Jeremy told Michael about his true experience with the SQUIP and how it opened the door to the vast variety of problems he’d been avoiding for so long. Shit had hurt for a bit, but as soon as they had aired out their dirty laundry, recovery was one step closer. A year and a couple months later, Jeremy lives satisfied, if not happy, with how things are, especially compared to where they were his junior year.

They don’t kiss for long, a minute at most, but Jeremy pulls away with a grimace and reddish cheeks.

“Your breath tastes like coffee,” he mutters, and Michael guffaws.

“Morning, sunshine,” Michael grins before shifting out of park and pulling away from the house.

The drive to school is brief, but always exciting. Michael always manages to fill the quiet with his words, but think not as an accommodation to Jeremy; he just has a lot of stuff to talk about. Jeremy thinks fondly of the few times that year that they’ve driven in near-silence (never true silence, because Michael always plays music quietly in the mornings whether he’s talking or not). Usually when they can’t talk, whether due to sickness or strict teachers, they use sign language. Michael always takes great care to focus on the road, though, so when there’s no verbal conversation, there’s no signed conversation either.

_The first few times Michael drives Jeremy after he gets his license, the air is thick with uncomfortable silence. Jeremy tries to strike up conversation to calm his own nerves, but Michael uncharacteristically responds with just a few words, if anything at all. Eventually, Jeremy gives up, forced to a car ride of stress and boredom until they park and Michael returns to himself._

_Jeremy finally speaks up after one particularly painful drive. They had just left the movie theater after a movie they definitely both enjoyed, and after movies they always talk about the stuff they liked and disliked, usually for hours on end. They had started discussing the movie as they walked out, but as soon as Michael started up the car, the discussion stopped._

_Like usual, Jeremy had tried to continue the conversation, only to be met with sparse responses. As soon as they parked outside of Michael’s house and Michael started up a conversation on the main character’s cool hats, Jeremy burst._

_“Why do you keep doing that?” he exclaimed, his hands in fists in his lap._

_Michael’s face fell. “Doing what?”_

_“You, you keep fucking, just. You stop talking once we start driving!” Jeremy says, exasperated. “It kinda freaks me out, dude!”_

_“Oh my god, Jeremy, I’m sorry, I just.” Michael takes a breath and turns in his seat to face Jeremy. “I don’t want to be the reason you get in a car accident, or, or give you another reason to avoid driving, or make you lose any trust in me.”_

_Jeremy furrows his eyebrows. “Michael, what--”_

_“You didn’t get in that accident that long ago, bro,” Michael says, voice softer this time. Jeremy watches his friend anxiously tap on the wheel, itching to get the words out, to ease Jeremy’s frustration. “I can’t be the reason you get in another one.”_

_“Michael, I…” Jeremy’s stomach turns as he thinks about the accident, but, surprising himself and Michael, he lets out a short laugh. “I trust you. A lot of the time, accidents, um, accidents are kinda random? Like, it’s not really anything that a good driver could have prevented. So like, it means a lot that you’re, you’re trying so hard, but like… these quiet car rides kind of freak me the fuck out.”_

_Jeremy sees Michael’s expression melt to one of almost cartoon-like mortification, so he waves his hands as he says, “No, no, no, it’s okay! You don’t have to feel bad, man, I’m just glad that it didn’t turn out to be something I did.” He chuckles slightly, and shoots Michael a hopefully reassuring smile._

After that conversation, Michael loosens up while he drives, chatting and playing quiet music while they’re on the road. Jeremy soon makes peace with the fact that Michael will never really be himself in the car. A small part of his best friend cares too much about Jeremy’s safety to truly have fun while Jeremy’s a passenger, but Jeremy’s okay with that. They save the music-blasting and deep conversation until they’re parked, and it works well for the both of them.

They pull into the parking lot, and Michael smoothly gets to his spot. Once they’re parked, Jeremy watches Michael pause the playlist currently playing and tap around to find the one titled “beats of the day” that he’s all-too familiar with. Every other morning or so, Michael makes a short playlist of a couple songs that he’s in the mood to blast that day, and once they have a free few moments, blast the playlist they certainly do.

“Alright dude, this morning when I was getting ready I had the most insane urge to loop ‘Africa’ by Toto, so that’s on the playlist today,” Michael declares, excited and carefree. 

Jeremy wants to lean over, grab Michael’s face, and kiss him until he can’t any longer, but his favorite part of car rides beats his favorite activity with his boyfriend. He sits back in the seat, resting his left hand in between himself and Michael. As Michael curls his fingers in between his, Jeremy closes his eyes and feels the intro of the song. “Africa,” not only a great song, has a steady pulse that he feels easily. The constant _thump_ grounds him, and when he looks over to see Michael passionately singing along with a lazy smile, he knows it’s gonna be a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me on tumblr @ twoplayergame! kudos and comments deeply appreciated! ^u^


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